Pre-War Genius
by DragonFire888
Summary: Before the world erupted in cataclysmic fire, players: composed of geniuses, billionaires, and those in the highest levels of international intelligence began a dangerous game that spanned the world and led to the dropping of the atom bombs that ended it. Liam an unwitting new player must try to navigate this dangerous game to save his family from the apocalypse.
1. Chapter 1

A boy pale and scrawny with dark brown hair and green eyes sat in front of a computer. He was the dark fear of all past high school football star. His practically paper white skin was illuminated by the pale green light coming from his computer screen. With a shaky hand he clicked the record button and his computer whirred as the camera began to record his face.

"Hello my name is Liam, and I know a secret, the secret actually, I know when the world's going to end. It's a scary thought knowing when atomic bombs are going to drop and destroy everything and everyone you've ever cared about; you know what's scarier? The fact that you're the only one who might be able save your family."

"The only other person on earth that shares this fear is Mr. Robert House, the multi-billionaire and inventor of the Securitrons, whose computers I gleaned this information off of. He used a special algorithm that is basically capable of predicting the apocalypse down to the second. In fact if the nuclear one wasn't looming overhead the next was scheduled in another ten years. I wonder if it'll still be functional after the bombs hit. After days of study I saw that the algorithm was sound if only a few days off."

"I wonder whether or not he has a spot in one of the vault tec vaults. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't hack the Vault-tec Computers and bump some other family off the guest list. In fact everything beyond the Vault-tec home page is locked up tighter than fort Knox — which thanks to me is actually a few hundred thousand dollars lighter. I wonder what they're hiding."

"I'm sure that there are some billionaires out there with some kind of personal bunkers, but how was I supposed to get them to let me and my family in. I could get all the money I needed no problem; the problem is that there's no one selling a get out of jail free card for the apocalypse. I could try building my own bunker, but there's no time and no one who wouldn't wonder where a teenager got enough money to build a Vault."

"Bribing a Vault-tec official is probably my best bet, but I can't find any willing to take a handout. Apparently Vault-tec has tested its employee loyalty by offering them money to give up secrets. From what I've heard those who accept the offer are never heard from again."

"I'm sure that U.S. officials have some kind of bunker of their own, but my dad's is a mechanic, not exactly the type who could call in political favors. If only I had hacked into Robert House's computers earlier than maybe I could have bribed the president with a landslide election."

"The truth is that maybe none of this would be so hard if my family wasn't so damn stupid. My mom I love her and my little sister too, my dad's the problem. He keeps saying that any day now those Chinese chickens will give in and surrender to the U.S., so there wasn't any need to apply for a spot in a vault or reserve a spot in a public fallout shelter. I tried the public fallout shelter route, but the closest one was in Washington D.C. and to kick someone out you needed a thirty digit passcode. God damn my dad, if he had just picked up the phone two weeks ago when I asked him to we'd have a spot."

"He's an idiot, idiot, idiot! Whatever I need my meds." Liam's face twitched uncontrollably as he fumbled for his medication. "You're probably wondering what these small red pills are huh? They're control my facial ticks and muscle spasms. Supposed to ease my anxiety too, but I've been using something else for that since the goddamn doctor just ups my prescription whenever I tell him I need something different."

Liam closed his eyes for a minute allowing himself a minute for the medication to kick in. "Alright, so there's this Vault not too far from here okay? Only five or six blocks away just out there in the middle of the neighborhood. If I could jack onto their signal then I might be able to hack the list of residence allowed in and kick someone out. The problem is that it's being guarded by soldiers all the time; you can't hack people, and I'm no match for a soldier."

"There's got to be a way though, got to be a way, got to be, got to be, got to be." With this Liam shut off the recording, ejected the halo-disk, and put it in his wall safe. When he was a child his father had installed him telling him he would want it when he was a teenager.

Thinking about it now Liam realized that his father probably expected him to hide nudie magazines in there. Oh well, just another way he let his parents down. With a steady hand Liam set his own security system, a cherry bomb that would destroy the halo tapes if anyone failed the combination more than three times.

He didn't know why he made these recordings, but whenever he made one it felt as if the weight on his shoulders eased a little. And with what he now he knew now he needed all the relief he could get.

"Liam it's time for school honey!" his mom called and Liam bit his thumb drawing blood.

"Damn, I need to talk to Katie." Liam said wrapping a bandage over his thumb and grabbing his backpack.

"Have a good day at school honey." his mom called after him as he rushed out the door.

"Thanks," he muttered under his breath.

His mom would drive his little sister Darla to school later as the high school was closer and Liam didn't like cars he walked. He didn't mind though; he didn't like being seen with his mom in public, he knew that the other moms talked behind her back about what an outcast he was. He didn't like putting her through that.

"Hey Liam, I heard that your school is having football tryouts." It was Liam's dad calling out from his garage. Owning his own car shop meant that he could make his own hours and he usually had late mornings.

"Yeah dad." Liam said acknowledging the statement.

"Well, do you think you're going to try out?" he asked and Liam scowled at this statement.

His father never could accept that Liam had no interest in sports and still periodically left a football around the house or buy him some cleats with a vague hope that Liam would suddenly love football.

Although there was no lost love between him and his father Liam's mom and his sister loved him, so he would include him in his survival plans.

"No dad I don't." Liam said.

"Just going to waste your life on those computers huh?" he asked and Liam gripped his backpack strap in a tight grip.

"Yeah probably." Liam said not looking back at his dad who put the wrench down with an audible clang on the car engine.

The walk to school was uneventful except for the soldiers that seemed to come out of nowhere in the middle of the night just to guard the vault. Always outfitted in the trademark T-60 Power Armor they were an intimidating sight. Those guarding the fence in front of the vault even carried what looked like a machine gun on psycho.

"They must be expecting people to riot trying to get in." Liam muttered under his breath. "The government must have their own predictions of when the bombs are going to drop."

Liam's hand shook as the medication slowly wore off on the walk to school, and he was acutely aware of his increasing facial twitches.

The problem plagued his every thought, he couldn't go more than a minute without trying to figure out how to survive the apocalypse, or hack into the Vault-tec mainframe. 'Maybe I could go to D.C. and sneak into the facility, maybe break into the computer room and get the location of all the vaults and then I'd have my pick of places. Maybe I could blackmail some millionaire with his bank statements, maybe, maybe," Liam was at his locker now and twitching uncontrollably.

His hand shook and he was barely able to put in his combination. Another orange bottle filled with red pills, his backup for school. He trembled as he grasped it in his hands and twisted and pulled on the cap that wouldn't come off.

Two hands grasped his own and forced him put down the bottle.

"Hey now baby, none of that stuff." she said. Another bottle was shoved into his hands and Liam sighed in relief opening this one easily and swallowing two. Mentats, soothing and refreshing mentats, his chem of choice to sooth him through these panic attacks. "Feel better?"

Liam didn't respond only reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. Katie, his regular supplier could also be described as Liam's only friend, though not by his own consent. He didn't know why, but she had taken an interest in him and decided for whatever reason to hang out with him.

She was a nice enough girl if you were willing to ignore the chem dealer aspect of her life. Pretty he supposed, the high cheek bones and blue eyes of a movie star, and nice enough. Who knows in a different life Liam might have liked her, but in this one he didn't have time for a romance. He needed to work on saving his family.

"I don't even know why you even take any of that other stuff Liam. I can get you anything you need." she said airily as Liam kept trying to get her to take the money. She traced his jaw line with her finger pulling away just in time to avoid triggering another panic attack. "Doctors can't take care of you like I can."

"Did you get that other stuff that I needed?" Liam asked ready to pull out another wad of cash.

"You know stimpacks and psycho aren't exactly easy to come by; I had to promise people things and I need something in return." she said waving a package in front of him enticingly.

"I can get you however much money you want." Liam said reaching for the parcel, but she snatched it away.

"No, I want something else." she said swinging the bag in front of his face enticingly. "A few friends let's say are going to fail the school year and they'd rather not. Their parents work for the pharmaceutical companies that make things like the mentats and psycho that you're so desperate for. If we help them then this stuff we can get a constant stream of supplies directly from the source."

"And you think that they won't notice crates of medical supplies being stolen every couple days?" Liam asked. Katie wasn't a stupid girl by any means, so she must know that this plan wouldn't work.

"Obviously, but if you hacked the shipping manifest and changed the logs they would be none the wiser, you can do that sort of thing can't you?" she asked massaging his fingers sensually.

"Yeah, no problem," Liam admitted. Her words caught him off guard, but not for the reason that she probably assumed. The pharmaceutical company did have a computer, and most likely a powerful one. Maybe not powerful enough to hack a direct Vault-tec computer mainframe, but maybe a vault. "You could get me in the company though? In the room with the main computer?"

"Can't you just change it from any terminal?" she asked.

He could do that, he could be in and out in a minute, but he wasn't doing this to help Katie. "No it needs to be in the control room with the big computer. If it's not that one then I may as well be typing on a terminal that's not plugged in.

"Cool your jets spaz, if that's where you need to be to get it done then I'll get us there." She seemed to think for a few moments before smiling dangerously. "Hey your dad owns a garage, right?"

"Yeah," Liam said immediately regretting his answer.

"Good then borrow us a car and by Friday and we'll go Saturday night."

"I can't just take a car besides I don't know how to drive." Liam said. "You handle it."

"Fine, I'll come over and get the car." she said with her devious grin. She turned away leaving Liam shocked at the turn of events. Katie knew where he lived somehow, he supposed that she had him followed at one point in time. How would she look to his parents more importantly his mother who had always had an unrealistic hope that her son would find some plain girl to take care of him. Nothing like Katie who wasn't the taking care of type and hated things like cleaning or kids.

Although he never expected that to happen he didn't think his mother's faith in him could take a hit like Katie. He was about to pop another mentat when the bell rang and he slammed his locker shut in frustration already late for class.

The school day was a blur, Liam was smart maybe smarter than the teachers, but he found little to no reason to try in classes. Doing the bare minimum was his motto; if they didn't think he was smart then anyone from Vault-tec coming to investigate the hack attempts on their systems wouldn't suspect him.

Liam bit his lip his leg shook as the mentats woke up and he felt the familiar feel of mentat withdrawal creep through his system. It wouldn't last for more than a few hours, but for those few hours he would be useless.

Going home and lying down with the blinds drawn was the best solution to this problem. He could deal with getting a car from his father and explaining why he was taking it out in the middle of the night later.

"So, am I going to meet your parents?" Katie managed to sneak up on him in his agitated state causing him to nearly jump out of his skin. "Don't have a cow Liam, stop being such a spaz will you." she hissed at him palming a pill into his hand. "Take one of these while I change and then we can go to your house."

"Why are you coming to my house?" Liam demanded.

"Because Clarice, your family's about to meet your new girlfriend." Katie said going into a unisex bathroom.

"I don't have a girlfriend." Liam said.

"You do for as long as it's convenient." Katie said through the door. "I heard from the mouth of a bird you've never so much as held a girl's hand, so I doubt you've ever brought one over."

"No." Liam admitted.

"So your parents will get cranked when they see their son with a total babe." Katie said like it was obvious. "They won't do anything to ruin their kid's chances."

"And where is this babe you're talking about? My folks are going to be the ones having a cow if you're the person you're talking about."

"What do you think about me now?" Katie asked stepping out of the bathroom.

Liam's jaw nearly dropped when he saw the transformation that Katie had undertaken in only a few minutes. She wore a long poodle skirt that came down to the ankle, a white blouse perfectly pressed and clean, ruby red flats, and a trendy gold watch. Her curly red hair was cut in a fashionable and modern way, her pale skin was like porcelain as if she had shined herself, her green eyes sparkled, and her teeth shone brilliantly.

"I still don't think that my folks will let you borrow a car a couple of days after meeting you." Liam said.

"Well then you must not have a lot of faith in me." She said running a finger along his neck. "Believe me I could have them begging you to propose to me in just a few minutes. Then again I guess any girl could with your track record." She giggled and Liam wondered where from her dark soul did that sound come from.

The walk back was filled with odd kind of peaceful silence, the peace before the storm Liam supposed. Liam kept nervously drumming his fingers on his pant left the entire time Katie trying to convince him to take another mentat. "What do you need them for?" Katie suddenly asked. "The psycho, stimpacks, and med-x I mean? The mentats, I can see why you need those, you're a nervous wreck, but stimpacks won't help that. They might make it worse."

"Something's going to happen soon." Liam said absentmindedly.

"What?" Katie asked.

"What?"

"You said something's going to happen."

"Did I?" Liam asked wondering if he had just blown his secret. Could this girl of painfully inferior intellect really have just gotten him to reveal his secret. His dad has always told him that the dumbest woman was smartest than the smartest man. Could this be what he meant? "Just thinking to myself."

"And just what are you thinking about? I bet you're thinking about that fat city that you're probably going to move to when you do whatever it is that you're going to do with your computers. Probably somewhere big and flashy like Washington, Las Vegas, maybe New York even. Imagine that our own little home town nerd growing up to be some trillionaire."

Liam hesitated for a moment; she actually thought that he might be able to do something with his computers. Not even his mom had thought he could do that, and she was the nicest person he know. Liam didn't even know if he wanted to do anything with computers; it just seemed like a fun hobby until a few weeks ago when he learned about the end of the world.

'That's why this is irrelevant,' he thought to himself. 'The world's going to end soon, so it doesn't matter if I actually did invent something. I wouldn't even have enough time to do the inventing part." Still in another life Liam supposed he might have become a trillionaire. Maybe actually buy that second garage his father was always talking about.

"We're here," Liam said.

"I guess we are." Katie said holding out her hand. "We're going to need to sell it Clyde."

"Stop calling me Clyde." Liam said taking her hand in his own. Her fingers fell between his and he shuddered at the feeling; he really needed something and soon.

Liam opened the door hoping that for some reason his parents wouldn't be home; that they finally decided to go on that date night they were always talking about.

There they were sitting at the kitchen table. They only acknowledged him with a brief glance, but they both stood up as soon as they saw Katie. "Liam, who's your friend?" his mother asked standing up and trying her best to hide her surprise.

"I'm Katie, and we're not just friends Mrs. Wells me and Liam are totally jacketed." Katie said before Liam could open his mouth to explain.

"You're dating? Liam's father asked not even bothering to hide his shock. His mother was doing better, but her mouth still hung slightly opening obviously not prepared for this situation.

"So your name's Katie?" Mrs. Wells asked smacking her husband out of his stupor by disgusting it as a pat on the back gone wrong. "Not the Katie that all the other mothers are complaining about? I heard that she sells chems."

"That's the one." Katie said almost setting off one of Liam's panic attacks before she laughed a sweet twinkling noise. His parents who had been stunned silent joined in the laughter. "No that's some other girl; I don't know about chems, but she certainly seems like she's up to no good."

"Oh well I was just about to make some cookies, so why don't you and Liam sit on the couch so we can get to know you better." Although she was quite caught off guard by the event Liam noted that she seemed to have a plan for this situation.

"That sounds totally hep Mrs. Wells, but Liam and I have to get some work done on a project first, and I've been dying to eyeball his room." Katie said.

"Oh well why don't you two do that and meanwhile I'll make these cookies and bring them in when they're ready?" Mrs. Wells asked.

"That would be totally aces Mrs. Wells, come on Liam." Katie tugged on Liam's sleeve snapping him out of his stupor long enough to lead her to his room. "Ooo is this your computer?"

"Obviously." Liam said walking over to it and sitting down in his chair.

"Are you going to hack in with this?" Katie asked reaching to touch the keyboard, but Liam smacked her hand. "Ow."

"No, I'm not going to hack it with this. Unless you want to carry around a twenty pound terminal in there with you."

"Well then how are you going to do it?" Katie asked rubbing her hand.

"If you get me into the room with the big computer then I install this on its mainframe." Liam held up a halo-disk. "It'll let me remotely control the thing and its virtually undetectable."

"Why do you have to install that? Why can't we just change the shipping manifest and get out of there?"

"Do you want to have to break in every time you run out of product? This way I can change the shipping manifest from my terminal whenever you need some more of anything."

"I guess that's why you're the genius." Katie said patting his back. "So all we need to do is get into the big computer room and stick this in a slot?"

"Essentially yes, but there's a lot of other stuff you probably won't be able to do." Liam said.

"Oh I'm sure." Katie said. "What's that?" She was referring to a poster that hung on his wall. The poster was of a pip-boy 3000 and it served to hide his wall safe.

"It's a pip-boy." Liam said.

"You say it like you want it." Katie said noting the somewhat whimsical tone that he said the words with.

"If I had something like that we wouldn't even need to borrow your friend's key card. I could hack our way into the building and past all the robots." Liam could only wish that he may one day wear a pip boy on his wrist.

"Why don't you just buy one? You're not exactly hard up for cash. Heck you could probably just hack Rob-co and get them to send one here. "While it was true that money wasn't hard to come by for Liam, and he had already hacked into Rob-co computers he couldn't just send himself a Pip boy.

"Because these things are some of the smallest most powerful computers in the world. People don't even make these since they're so valuable; only robots are trusted, and even then their memories are wiped so no one can steal a robot and try to reverse engineer one of these from its video recordings. You can't just buy them and even if I were to get one sent here they would just come take it back and probably lock me up for stealing one."

"Maybe I'll get you one for your birthday." Katie said offhandedly.

"Wishful thinking." Liam said rolling his eyes at her. "So you still haven't told me how you're planning on getting my dad to give us a car."

"Oh it's simple. There's this totally hot party this weekend, and I want us to make the scene as an official couple. But we need to pick some other friends, and since I have a driver's license I can drive us. "Katie said.

"You have a driver's license?" Liam asked.

"I have three." Katie said pulling out three fake I.D.'s with three different variations of her name. Katy the chem dealer he was used to, Kati some hippie looking girl who looked like she hadn't showered in a week, and Katie the girl who sat in front of him. Liam briefly wondered which one was really her.

"And you really think my parents are dumb enough to believe that?"

"Oh Liam, as smart as you are you just don't realize that it's people that are easy." Katie said patting his head like a dog. "So why don't you walk me through the plans of the pharmaceutical company."

"Give me a minute to hack into the city plans." Liam said putting out a few quick key strokes. He found the blue prints of the building and put them on the screen. "Here we are?"

"We're going in through here; it's the janitor's entrance." Katie said pointing to the corresponding location on the map. "The big computer room is which one?"

"Right here." Liam said pointing to a room labeled CC. "Stands for Command Center probably."

"How can you tell?" Katie asked.

"A company as large as this one has to have a super computer; something like that would need a lot of air conditioners and look what surrounds the room." Katie examined the map and agreed that this was the only place that the computer would be.

"How long will it take to install your program?" she asked.

"Anywhere from five to fifteen minutes depending on the kind of anti-hacking software that the computer is equipped with."

"What if you can't get in?" Katie asked.

"The only computers that have managed to keep me out belong to Vault-tec; I don't think this company is going to stand much of a chance." Liam said.

"Why were you trying to hack into the Vault-tec computers?"

Liam froze feeling sweat trickle down. He needed to stop giving away bits and pieces like this; it was Katie's fault she left him feeling unguarded no matter how careful he was. "To see if I could order an extra pip-boy and hide it from them and get it for myself." Liam thought it was an effective cover up, and he would have believed the lie

Katie tilted her head looking at him through squinted eyes. "But you said that they're impossible to steal." Liam felt like banging his head against a wall for his lapse in concentration. He was an idiot for not remembering that; the discussion was only a few minutes ago. "Well I guess you've got to try though. If anyone can do it, it's you, genius."

Liam nearly let out a sigh of relief, but managed to hold it in. "Oh Liam!" Mrs. Wells called opening the door a tray of cookies in hand.


	2. Chapter 2

Liam's hand immediately shot out and slammed on the shutdown button of his terminal, but he knew it would look suspicious if they were both caught staring at a turned off screen. Katie solved this problem by leaning in pressing her lips to his.

Due to his panic attacks and social anxiety Liam didn't make friends or girlfriends, so he had never so much as held anyone's hand before. Somehow her surprise attack on his mouth didn't immediately send him into a bout of twitching and stuttering. Instead he felt rather at peace; something he hadn't felt since he was younger than Darla.

"Oh I'll just leave these here!" he heard his mom say, but he barely registered her words.

Liam was the one to pull away as he hadn't taken a breath before Katie went in for the kiss and he needed to breathe. "Nice cover." Liam said.

"No problem." Katie said back.

"So we're doing this Saturday?"

"If everything goes right." Katie affirmed. "Alright I'm going to head home now; we'll talk to your parents about the car tomorrow." Katie headed out the other door leaving Liam to contemplate breaking into a guarded pharmaceutical company.

"Crap why didn't I just tell her to install the damn thing? I can't get shot." Liam said rubbing his eyes. He set his teeth on edge. "What if the police come and arrest us? They'll search my computer, find the halo disks, then when all those rich guys found out what I've done they'll kill me." Liam's face was twitching like crazy and he couldn't stop shaking. "It's fine, fine, fine." Liam fumbled for his pills and popped two chasing them with a mentat. "Just figure out the best way in and out of there."

The next day Liam hid the program in his wall safe where it would be safest before heading to school. Katie joined him halfway on his walk to school still dressed in the disguise she had donned for his parents. The day before Liam had only noticed that it made her look pretty; now he noticed that it also left her looking trapped. Like a lion being forced into a blouse and skirt.

"Why are you s-still wearing that?" Liam asked.

"Can't have your parents asking around and finding out that their baby boy's been hanging out with Katy the chem dealer." Katie said like it was obvious. "Besides don't I look nice?"

"I like you better the other way." Liam admitted. "You look more natural; more like you."

"Well aren't you as sweet a glass of southern ice tea." She said pinching his cheek. "Still it's better this way, if someone comes investigating us all they'll find are two all American sweethearts."

"Because I'm an all American teenager." Liam said. He didn't exactly look the part with his hoodie and faded jeans. "Hell, you look so different people are going to wonder who you are and why you're hanging out with me."

"You know Liam you don't give yourself enough credit; I'm sure if people didn't think of you as a freak they might like you. You might even be one of the popular kids." Katie said.

"And why would I want to be one of them?" Liam asked.

"You got me." Katie said with a shrug. "Are you going to go to class?"

"Yeah, you?"

"I need to do some more work on breaking in; maybe you could print me that map of the building?"

"I can do you better." Liam grabbed a sheet of paper out of his notebook and sketched out an exact replica of the map they had been looking at last night. "I hope it helps."

"Looks pretty nice." Katie commented. "I don't suppose you draw me." Liam shook his head and Katie pouted like she was disappointed. "Well maybe we could take an art class together. I'll see you later."

Katie walked off holding her hallowed out books filled with chems and Liam wondered why he felt how the books looked. "Hey Liam." Liam turned and saw Melissa.

She was a mousy girl with light brown hair who was in the AV club with him. She was smart and the only person who Liam could discuss with computer things with. As a fun pass time they would create little interfaces and challenge each other to hack them. Liam had actually just done this in the vein hope that she may of been able to succeed where he had failed and crack the Vault-tec interface.

"Hi Melissa." Liam said grabbing a book out of his locker and turning to face her. Like most girls Melissa put him on edge, but Liam was never close enough to her to ever cause a panic attack like he was with Katie.

"Who was that girl you were talking to?" she asked.

"It was Katie, I've told you about her before." Liam said.

"That was Katie? I thought she was a chem dealing sociopath; someone said that she's been to jail for stabbing someone."

"Who told you that?" Liam asked. He knew for a fact that Katie had never been to jail, she was too smart, if she had then he would never have made her his chem dealer.

"I heard it through the grape vine." Melissa said pushing her glasses up on her nose. "Why were you talking to her? You don't want people to see you together; they might think that you two are friends."

"Because that would lower everyone's opinion of me by so much." Liam said.

"I'd hate for someone not to hire you because they think you and her are associates." She touched his arm and Liam pulled it away holding his cheek to stop it from twitching.

"I've g-got to g-get to class." Liam said feeling about an hour of twitching and shuddering coming on. Maybe he would skip class and enjoy a nice controlled mentat high.

"S-so, did you hear about the party that I'm throwing this weekend?"

Liam bit his upper lip at this of course Melissa would plan their B&E during the night of an actual party. No one would be at the facility if the party was keeping them full of booze. "You're throwing the party," Liam said thinking that Melissa wasn't the type to do something so social. "I may of heard someone mention it." he admitted.

"It's my birthday and I wanted to tell you even though it goes without saying that you're invited I wanted to invite your personally. Maybe you could be my date." Melissa said.

"Ah, I d-don't think so Melissa I have plans." Liam said. To be honest Liam had no idea that it was Melissa's birthday and although Melissa was nice enough and smart he didn't really see any future for them, if the world wasn't going to end he probably would have ended up dating maybe even marrying her, but not with what he knew now.

"Well maybe you could move your thing to the party." Melissa said persistently.

"It's uh kind of a family thing. They're not going to let me ditch it; they've been planning it for a while." Liam said.

"What are you guys doing?" Melissa asked.

"Camping trip." Liam said.

"Well if you decide that you can spare a couple of hours before you go." Melissa handed him an invitation before heading off to class allowing Liam to pop a mentat and do the same.

Just like the day before Liam had trouble sitting through class and he wondered for the hundredth time why he did. Even if the world wasn't going to end he could make more than enough money to live on from hacking bank accounts and stealing information.

Heck even without that skill he might be might have been able to become Katie's second. Still he immediately answered the question with the same answer he always used. One day after the world ended people would need to rebuild and then it would be those who knew how to build things who would be powerful. That was why Liam memorized every formula and textbook he could get his hands on. That and he didn't want Darla to grow up stupid; he didn't think he could take that.

"Hey Liam I saw you talking to that new girl, do you think you could introduce me?" It was Billy Mobius who asked him. He wasn't the nicest person, but he wasn't smart enough to be a bad person either. He never insulted Liam directly only when one of his friends egged him on. Overall Liam felt bad for him; he would never really know what it was like to think for himself. "Not like you would know what to do with her anyway huh?"

"That girl is Katie." Liam said and immediately Billy moved away.

"Oh you don't want to mess with her Liam; that girl's crazy." Billy scooted away as Liam's ticks began to set in again.

'She has a way to make money and she's got a thriving business that she actually plans on expanding. As far as crazy goes she's probably one of the sanest people I know; then again she's also ignoring the impending nuclear apocalypse, so sane is a relative term.' Liam bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, but with the mentats still rushing through his system he didn't notice until a drop of blood hit his hand. 'I wonder what she's doing right now.' He thought unconsciously answering the questions on the board.

Katie didn't like school, they weren't teaching anything that she couldn't learn on the streets. Most of what they taught was useless information anyway; who cared about the weight of the average atom bomb anyway.

The only real math that mattered was how much cash you could get for selling a certain amount of chems. All the science she needed she could learn by mixing chems in her friend's reverse engineering knockoff med-x and mentats. None of that cheap stuff for Liam though; he was a friend and would be treated a

Uh.

Because of her attitude toward school and the fact that she was well known as the friendly neighborhood chem dealer she was commonly known as one of the most bad of bitches. Which is why she was surprised when one of the quietest girls she ever met walked right up to her and got in her face.

"Hey I saw you talking to Liam." Melissa said.

"Yeah, I was." Katie said narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips interested in seeing where this was going.

"Well I want you to stay away from him." Melissa said poking her chest. When Katie looked down at the finger Melissa pulled it away and dropped her hand to her side, but she didn't back down. "I've been friends with him for a lot longer than you have and I can tell you he doesn't need some chem dealer throwing all that drama in his life. You might kill him."

Katie thought that if this Melissa girl honestly thought that a chem dealer would make Liam uncomfortable then however long they knew each other must not be enough. "I don't think that Liam needs you to guard him." Katie said.

"He's delicate, sometimes he bugs out so hard that he can barely even talk. I'm sure that in front of you he can barely get a word out, and that's not healthy for him." Melissa glared at her through her thick glasses and Katie couldn't help but feel intimidated. The girl was small, but she looked like she could handle herself in a fight through sheer force of will if necessary.

"Well I'll tell you what if Liam stops talking to me then I'll do the same." Katie said and Melissa turned on her heel stomping away. 'That girl's not right in the head.'

While Katie agreed that Liam was rather delicate she didn't think that hiding him from stress factors was helpful. That was why she had introduced herself and introduced him to his favorite chems. She liked to think that she was helping him, and while she was sure that he ran all sorts of checks on her Liam had allowed her farther in than anyone else she knew. That Melissa girl certainly didn't know that Liam had performed digital bank heists or about his mentat dependency.

Katie readjusted her blouse and continued on her merry way making her way to the gymnasium where she would talk with the person getting her access to the facility. His name was Pete, a hardcore chem addict who was always looking for a fix. He wasn't like Liam though she doubted anyone was. Pete used chems for strictly recreational reasons and he had no reputable skills. He couldn't steal like she could, market like a good dealer should, or hack a terminal like Liam could. The only thing useful about him was that his dad was a janitor at the pharmaceutical company.

He wasn't even smart enough to figure out how to break in on his own. He had told Katie about it during one of his drop offs and Katie had offered to do the job even give him all the chems he could want in exchange for his dad's key card. For Pete it was a once in a lifetime deal and for Katie it was a golden opportunity.

"Do you have the card?" Katie asked sitting down next to Pete who seemed confused.

"Uh, who are you?" he asked.

"It's me Katie."

"Whoa man I must be tripping pretty hard cause I would swear that you're wearing a dress. You even look kind of pretty." He rubbed his eyes and squinted at her, but in the end he just shrugged and handed her an envelope. "My dad is on one of his fishing trips, so he won't miss it until next week. You're going to do it before then?"

"Doing what Pete?" Katie asked standing up.

"Right man." Pete said. "Hey you got something for me?"

"Your favorite, a crate of mentats mixed with nuka cola." Katie said tucking the envelope in her pocket. "It's in the usual place under the bleachers."

"Righteous." Pete said standing up and heading over to the spot where his special treat was hidden.

Katie checked her watch and wondered if she had enough time to enjoy a brief lunch before Liam's class ended. She supposed that he still had plenty of mentats to hold him over. Unless something set off one of his panic attacks there was no way he could use them all.

She grabbed a sack lunch out of her locker and grimaced at her own cooking. She decided that she would use the snack-o-matic in the hall instead.

She reached up to feed it a few dollars, but a hand came up under her arm and cupped her breasts. She threw her elbow back to knock off whoever was doing it, but whoever it was held on strong kneading her breasts through the fabric. "And who might you be?" The voice was too deep to be a student and Katie thought it had to be a teacher. "I've never seen you around here before." She shoved again, but this time he brought up his hand to smack her. "You must be that transfer student that the rumors are talking about."

"Let me go you pervert." she spat, but she realized it was more or less hopeless.

"You should be a little nicer to me; I could ruin your whole year. Make sure you don't ever go to college if you don't do what I say." That settled it he was a teacher and he thought that Katie was the kind of girl that cared about grades.

She finally found the pin that she used to keep her hair up and she pulled out. She pressed it hard against his rib cage and forced him back a step. "You better not mess with me Mr. Baxter!" Katie said waving the pin menacingly. It was several inches long and very sharp.

"Katie, is that you?" he asked. "Look you don't want to do this, after all I just saw you dealing chems that's why I grabbed you after all. And that's what I'm going to tell the principle and the police when they come to investigate."

"But you'll be lying." Katie said furiously.

"Who do you think they're going to believe?" he asked spreading his arms. "Now why don't you come here and let me finish what I started. I'm sure I left you pretty horny too."

Katie stepped forward seemingly resigned to her fate and Mr. Baxter began to wrap his arms around her. He didn't expect the stab and wasn't able to move away or defend himself. The needle sunk deep into abdomen drawing spurts of blood that stained his shirt and her blouse red.

"You crazy bitch!" Mr. Baxter yelled out as he sunk to the ground and clutched the needle.

"Keep pressure on it!" Katie spat kicking him with all the force she could muster. She stormed off leaving him to bleed; she doubted that he would actually accuse her of anything since he didn't have any proof. It was just one of those empty threats that she had learned to spot a mile away. You had to in her business.

She waited until the last school bell rang and Liam found her at their usual spot. "Is that blood?" he asked immediately noticing the red stain on her blouse.

"No, it's cranberry juice." Katie said and Liam nodded. That was one of his vices she thought. He thought he was too smart to be lied to, so he didn't realize when it actually happened.

They made the walk to Liam's home; at the halfway mark Katie split off leaving Liam to make the rest of the way by himself.

Liam wasn't stupid, he knew that cranberry juice didn't crack like that on fabric. It had to be blood, but Liam knew there were a hundred and one possible explanations for it. He also knew that about half of them were violent possibilities, but Katie could take care of herself. I she didn't ask for help then she thought she could handle it, and all signs said that she was.

Right outside his house Liam saw something odd. A car fancier than anything that anyone in town owned; it looked foreign. There were plenty of garages in town, but his father's was well known for being cheap and doing good work, so there being a fancy car here wasn't all that unusual.

Still something about it set him on edge, he fumbled with a mentat and steeled his resolve before entering his house. As soon as he opened the door he saw something out of place; it was a man. Tall and handsome with a thick head of dark red hair he was out of place among the average looking faces of the town. He wore a pinstripe suit that commanded attention and a pair of black framed glasses.

"Oh Liam, it seems as if this kind gentleman is here from that store that we bought your terminal from. He says that there's been some sort of recall, and that he needs to check your computer for some kind of deficiency." Mrs. Wells said standing up and motioning for the tall man to do the same. "I thought I should wait for you to come home before I let him in your room."

"And you are?" Liam asked.

"The name's Randall Lockheart," the man said standing up and extending his hand for Liam to shake. "According to the list we have at the shop you were sold a defective computer. If it doesn't work then I'm supposed to give you a full refund." He spoke with an English accent and Liam thought that Al's pawn shop wasn't the type to give a damn about refunds or safety precautions. And someone who was working there certainly wouldn't be driving a car like the one in the driveway.

"And what shop is that again?" Liam asked feeling the twitches try to take over. It was no coincidence that he had hacked the city plans yesterday and today someone was trying to take his terminal.

"Oh you know the pawn shop." Whoever this person really was Liam realized they hadn't done their homework. "Anyway why don't you let me into your room and I'll run my little safety test for you."

"Why don't you just tell me how to do the test and I'll do it myself." Liam said positioning himself between this strange man and his mother.

"Sorry I have to see for myself, so you don't get scam us out of a refund." Randall said narrowing his eyes. "I'll tell you what if you let me do the test I'll pay for a brand new terminal fresh off the line."

"Why would you do that?" Liam asked.

"How's about a bright shiny pip-boy in exchange for that computer boy?" Liam thought that someone that could so casually promise something impossible wasn't someone he wanted having anything he owned.

"I think you need to leave now." Liam said and seeing that he wasn't going to get anywhere Randall made his way to the door.

Before he left though he turned and said in a grave whisper just loud enough for Liam to hear "You may have discovered something you can't handle you ankle biter." He left and as soon as the door closed Darla started wailing loudly. His mom rushed over to comfort her and she looked at him nervously.

"Liam, what was that about? Who was that man and why did he want your computer so badly?" she asked clearly not grasping that Desmond had come in here intending to steal the computer. He just hadn't expected to find her there; Liam shuddered to think what he might have done if his mom had realized how dangerous he was.

"When Katie came over yesterday, she said that her dad might come over and ask to see my computer. He's really paranoid about someone taking pictures of his daughter; she said not to let him see my computer at all or he would just smash it to bits. He's a little off." Liam said.

"Katie and her family are British?" she asked.

"Yeah, they moved here a couple years ago." Liam said. "Don't worry about it mom he won't come back. I need to make a call; I promised that I would tell Katie if her dad came by."

"Oh well the phone's in the kitchen."

Liam nodded and not for the first time he wished they had one of those wireless phones everyone was so excited about. "Hello?" Katie's voice cracked out on the other line.

"Katie, we may have a problem." Liam whispered so his mom wouldn't hear.

"What is it?" Katie asked sounding concerned.

"Some guy came by my house today, and he kept trying to get to my computer." Liam said.

"Are you guys okay?" Katie asked.

"Yeah we're fine he didn't seem ready to hurt anyone, but I'm worried about his timing."

"You think that he came because we hacked the city plans?"

"I don't see any other reason why someone would come for my computer."

"Do you think he's from the pharmaceutical company?"

"He might work for the security company that was hired to protect the place."

"So what do you think? Should we call it off?"

"Huh?" Liam asked. He had told Katie thinking that she would decide whether or not to continue; it never occurred to him that she might ask his opinion. He debated whether or not it was worth the risk to keep going with the heist. For him it was, it was his only chance to save his family, for Katie this break in would only put her in danger. So the question was, who did he care about more. Why was he even asking though, he had risked treason charges to try and get his family into a public bunker. "No we shouldn't, he doesn't know what we're planning or who you are. All he knows is that we accessed the city plans and he won't know which building we checked either. Besides no matter what kind of equipment this guy has there's no way he's hacking into my computer. "

"Alright genius, we'll keep going. We should steer clear of each other until Friday and Saturday in case that guy is watching you." Katie said.

"Alright." Liam said slamming the phone down into its holder. Strangely enough Liam felt an odd twisting in his stomach like the first time he had drained a bank account before he learned to target corporations.

It would fade though, once his family was safely secure in a bunker of one kind or another, he was sure of it. Still it wouldn't hurt to check out this Desmond Lockhart in the meantime.

Liam searched well into the night before he finally decided to stop and fall into a fitful sleep.

Just as Katie assumed Liam's parents were more than happy enough to loan them the car. Their only condition was that Katie would stay for Sunday dinner the next night so they could get to know her better.

"You're parents are really nice Liam; do you think I should bring anything to dinner tomorrow?" Katie asked as they slid into the car.

"Just come and talk about football or something; I'm sure it'll drive my dad crazy." Liam said ruffling through his backpack to make sure they had everything that they needed.

"Yeah he does seem like a football fan." Katie said turning the key in the ignition. "So do you have what we need?"

"A change of clothes, my program, a copy of the blue prints, and mentats." Liam said shaking the pill bottle. "What about you did you remember the key?"

"Of course I did. Now give me a minute to change." Katie pulled the car down on a side street and Liam stepped out of the car while she changed.

To his surprise Liam had to catch himself staring at her in the mirror. "Liam!" Katie snapped and Liam turned his head cheeks burning. She stuck her head out the window and narrowed her eyes at him. "Were you trying to peek at me?"

"O-of course n-not." Liam stuttered.

"You naughty boy." Katie said with a devious wink. "Come on let's get going you horny dog."

"I wasn't trying to peek!" Liam kept insisting on this, but Katie only smiled wryly in response.

They pulled off the road and hid the car a quarter mile from the facility according to plan. "So the factory's about a quarter mile that way, and we have three hours before the actual janitors show up to clean the place."

"If we do it right it shouldn't take one." Liam said. "Are you sure that the badge will get us all the way through to the main computer?"

"Well if it doesn't this will have all been for nothing and it won't matter will it?" Katie sensed a type of steeliness in the look that Liam gave her. While usually a nervous wreck this was the look he reserved for important occasions like gigantic cybercrimes, the fact that he wore it now told her this may have been a little more than just a constant chem supply. "Don't worry Liam; it'll work."

"Good." Liam pulled his hoodie up and they made the short hike to the factory. "So out of curiosity even if I do set a different manifest to the system the chems are still going to be in the factory. How are you going to get them out?"

"I have a guy who works in the loading bay, but don't worry too much about it, just focus that genius brain of yours on getting us into the computer."

"What about actual security? Like guards and stuff?"

"This building doesn't have any."

"Doesn't that strike you as odd?" Liam asked.

"Just because a few stupid adults decided that their security system is so foolproof that they don't need actual people to guard their chems it shouldn't stop us." Katie pulled her own hoodie up over her head and they made a beeline for the door just as soon as the cameras moved away.

To her surprise she had to go a little faster to keep up; his long lanky legs were good for more than just standing around she guessed. "Come on let's get this over with." Liam said as Katie swiped the card and opened the door.

"Whoa this place is creepy." Katie said looking around at the completely dark infrastructure of the building. "Which way?"

"This way." Liam said running through the map he had in his head. "We keep going down this hall until it splits off in two directions, then we go right, left, left again, and we're there."

"Forget chems, with my street know how and your computer skills we could be jewel thieves." Katie whispered as they made their way through numerous empty halls.

"Technically I am a bank robber." Liam said with a shrug. He stopped and turned around suddenly. "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Katie asked straining her ears for the noise Liam detected.

"It sounds like rolling wheels." Liam said cocking his head in the direction of the noise. "It's coming from that way."

"Is that guy that came to visit your house in a wheel chair?" Katie asked as they ducked behind a desk.

"Be quiet." Liam said on the verge of having one of his anxiety attacks.

They waited for a few minutes as they watched a gigantic behemoth roll around the corner and scan the area. Both of their jaws hung open at the monstrosity of mechanical engineering before them. A robot standing on three legs painted black, one arm a laser, the other just a hole from which who knows what would fire. "What is that?" Katie asked trembling so hard the whisper barely escaped her lips.

"I-its a sentry bot; it has a rocket launcher and a laser. It shouldn't be here." Liam whispered back trembling sp hard he had to fight to keep his knees from knocking together.

"Present yourselves." the voice of the sentry bot froze them both in place and they saw the light from its head cast overhead. "Present yourselves!" it demanded once again. "If you do not present yourselves then I am authorized to use deadly force; civilian safety cannot be guaranteed."

Slowly they rose hands in the air. "Liam, I'm really scared." Katie admitted shaking so hard she could hardly keep her hands up.

"Peter Jackson please retreat to a distance of one hundred feet for your own safety." The sentry stood guns pointed at them ready to fire with both of them so scared they didn't hear it. "Peter Jackson retreat to a distance of one hundred feet!"

"W-who?" Liam asked.

"Peter Jackon must be the guy I stole the ID from." Katie said daring to glance at the machine which still didn't move. "We need to move; I don't think it will fire if we have this."

"Halt! All employees of the building have signed a waiver that states they will not be taken hostages no matter the circumstance."

"We need another ID." Katie said. "This thing won't let both of us leave."

"Katie give me the ID." Liam said.

"What?!" she demanded finding unbelievable that Liam might leave her to this even if she had convinced him to break in in the first place.

"I have an idea, but I need you to trust me and give me the ID." Liam said looking at her with the same steel gaze he had come in with.

"Alright." Katie said handing him the ID against all her better survival instincts.

As soon as he had it Liam ran right up to the robot. For a fleeting moment Katie thought he may try to disarm the thing like a hero in a gragnok the barbarian comic and her the damsel in distress. This fantasy was short lived and Liam ducked behind it running down the hall as far as she could see. "Liam." Katie asked with a tremble in her voice.

"Prepare for termination." The sentry said leveling its weapons on her.

"Liam!" she cried out falling to her knees and desperately covering her head.

"Prepare ... to ...be termi ... eeeeee." Katie looked and saw the sentry bot slumped its light turned off.

"Liam?" she asked.

"I shut it down." Liam said poking out from behind the robot. "Wasn't that hard honestly." Despite what he said Liam's palms were coated with sweat and he looked like he had aged ten years behind that robot. "Are we still doing this?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course we are; we just beat a robot." Katie said doubling over with nervous laughter. "Come on let's get to that damn computer room.

As they made their way to the central computer room Liam saw some rather worrisome things. "Those are ceiling mounted turrets, lasers, even some more deactivated sentry bots."

"Why aren't they firing?" Katie asked.

"They might be disabled until the janitors leave later on so no one gets shot."

"So why did that one come on?" Katie asked.

"Probably just one that they leave active to secure the facility. It wouldn't have done anything if only one of us had come through, but with both of us its security protocols must have activated."

"That's not the only weird thing though." Liam shook his head trying to piece it together. "Come on let's hurry up."

They got to the main computer room where Liam easily unlocked the door through a nearby terminal. He also deactivated the turrets and sentry bots just in case they somehow activated.

"Alright." Liam's fingers flew across the keyboard and Katie admired his figure standing there. Although Liam was a naturally anxious person when dealing with just about any situation when he was on a keyboard he was almost a different person. Confident that each key stroke he made was the right one and cool despite their time limit he was an impressive sight.

"I'm in." Liam announced pulling out his halodisk. "Just this and we're out of here."

"That's far enough kiddies!" A voice yelled followed by the cocking of a gun.

"Who is that?" Katie asked.

"It's Lockheart." Liam said watching as the man approached out of the darkness pointing a pistol at them. "Did he follow us?"

"No I checked for tails the whole way here." Katie said.

"It was a tracking device under the car loves. Got to say though bird you certainly would have seen me if I tried to follow you by car." He spoke with a British accent now and with the confidence with which he held the gun made it quite obvious that he was used to it. "Now why don't you stop copying hat information off that computer?"

"Information, what information?!" Katie asked frantically.

"We haven't copied anything we were just trying to change the shipping manifest." Liam said focusing his gaze on the gun.

"You duckies really are just stealing some chems huh? You don't have any idea what you've stumbled on." As Lockheart said this it occurred to Liam what didn't make sense about this whole thing; there was too much security to just be guarding a couple chems. He pointed the gun at Liam and smiled. "Alright duck since you look like the brains behind this operation why don't you download whatever's on that computer to this blank halodisk. As a favor for shutting down those pesky security systems I'll even let you pick who I shoot. I only need one body to make it look like a robbery gone wrong. The other gets to go free." His handsome features twisted in an ugly smile. "Promise."

Liam didn't catch the halodisk when Lockheart threw it and he fumbled to grab it off the floor. He walked over to the terminal the whole way his own halodisk burning a hole in his pocket. If he could just install this instead of Locheart's halodisk they both might walk away alive.

Very carefully Liam reached into his pocket and carefully pulled out his own halodisk. "Hurry up ducky or I might just shoot your girlfriend here and shoot you anyway." Liam inserted the halodisk and his program immediately went to work attacking the system. Within only a few seconds he was in complete control of the system and he switched on the security systems.

"Get down!" Liam yelled tackling Katie to the ground as the system went online. The computer locked and the turrets armed, but Desmond was too slow to react before a bullet lodged itself into his shoulder. He fell and the system declaring him dead shut off.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

"Let's not stick around to find out." Liam said quickly turning off the system again before it could aim at them.

"What information was he talking about?"

"I have no idea." Liam said. "Let's get out of here."

Sure enough they saw Lockheart's fancy car right outside while they had to run the quarter mile back to their car. "Now what?" Liam asked.

"I'm assuming you installed your program?" Liam nodded and Katie smiled in relief. "Now we need to go to the party to establish an allabi. Just for an hour or two then we can leave, but people need to make sure that they saw us together."

"Okay." Liam leaned back in the seat and popped a mentats to soothe his nerves.

"Thar was insane." Katie said shaking her head. "That guy was going to shoot us."

"Do you think he's dead?" Liam asked.

"He doesn't seem like the type." Katie said.

"To die?" Katie shrugged and Liam sighed.

Katie pulled into the driveway of the mansion where the party was being held. "Did you know Melissa's parents were rich?" Katie asked and Liam shoom his head. "Maybe this won't be so boring."

They exited the car and entered the party which was reaching its climax. "I'll go get us drinks." Katie said walking off in the direction of the punch bowl.


	3. Chapter 3

Liam's leg shook nervously as he stood there listening to jazz play. Although he didn't particularly enjoy jazz he did like the saxophone, the keys reminded him of a keyboard, and the noise it made were pleasant. "Liam!" Liam closed his eyes and let out a silent sigh; he didn't need this after such a stressful night. "I'm so glad you could make it." It was the birthday girl herself, Melissa standing their smiling brightly.

She certainly looked beautiful wearing her deep red dress covered with sequins. A dark blue band at the waist gave the illusion of curves where there weren't any. Although she did look beautiful Liam could tell that her beauty was artificial: makeup, padded bras, and concealer didn't make her beautiful. "Hi Melissa." Liam said with a weak smile.

"What happened? I thought that you had that thing with your family."

"They cancelled." Liam said and immediately began to twitch. If the police questioned Melissa they would find out that Liam lied to her, that they had no plans to go to the party, and that they arrived late. It could ruin everything and put them in a place easy for guys like Lockheart to find.

"Oh Liam, you're twitching, come on, let's get you away from all these people." Melissa said incorrectly assuming that it was the crowd of people that was causing Liam to twitch. Not knowing how to say no Liam allowed her to lead him up the stairs and into a dark room with an ornate desk and tall bookshelves taking up most of the room. "This is my dad's study; no one will bother us up here."

"Who does your dad work for anyway?" Liam asked wondering who could afford such luxurious furnishing.

"He runs the local Robco factories; the ones that make all the securitrons and pip-boys that you're always hearing about. He got one as an honor or something, but he just put it in a frame on the wall there." Melissa walked over to the desk and pulled out a heavy looking, crystal bottle filled with an amber colored liquid. "It's my dad's special whiskey; do you want a sip?"

"Uh, I'm not much of a d-drinker." Liam said, but she just shoved the drink into his hand anyway. "Your dad works for Robert House?"

"Well not directly, but he runs one of his factories." Melissa said. "He met him once at a special dinner honoring the factory workers, but they didn't talk."

'Robert House, the only other person on earth who knew that the world was going to end.' Liam thought with a gulp. His only chance at surviving the apocalypse with his family lied within the super computer he just hacked, and now that he had a moment he realized that he still had Lockheart's halo-disk.

"Oh is that my birthday present?" Katie asked yanking the halo-disk out of his hands. "Is it a song or a program that you wrote for me?" She went over to the terminal and popped in the disk. "Oh it's loading."

Liam sucked in breath sharply. He had no idea what was on that halo-disk or what it would to Melissa's computer. "Ugh this stupid terminal is so unreliable. I told my dad to buy the newer one."

"Both of you put your hands in the air." Liam froze and slowly turned around to see Lockheart standing there holding his gun hand steady. His shoulder was wrapped in what looked like the old sleeve of his suit. "That's right nice and easy."

"Who are you?!" Melissa demanded angrily.

"My, my boy, you are a go getter aren't you? Two birds in one night, but I must say that the other one was prettier."

"How did you find us?" Liam asked complying with Lockheart's demands.

"You forgot to take the tracker out from the bottom of the car; I've got to say it was a pretty stupid move." Liam nearly bit off his own tongue from the stupidity. How could he of possibly made such a stupid mistake.

"Now if you had left that computer at the building unlocked then maybe I would have let it go, but you had to go and reset the damn thing. Now here's what's going to happen. You and the bird are going to get in the car with me and we'll drive back up to the factory where you'll unlock the computer and copy it onto the halo-tape you stole from me."

As he said this he edged closer until he was close enough to grab Melissa's arm and pull her against his chest. "Then what?" Liam managed to squawk past a dry throat and parched lips.

"Then I shoot you both in your god damn skulls." Lockheart said leveling his pistol to the center of Liam's forehead. "Now get in the god damn car."

"Oh shut the hell up!" Katie yelled. Her voice surprised both of them, but not as much as the sharp crack of marble on skull as she brought down a bust on Lockheart's head.

"Um." Liam said with wide eyes.

"I was worried when I didn't see you outside." Katie said with a shrug. She dropped the bust and searched Lockheart's pockets quickly coming up with a wallet and what must have been the device he was tracking them with. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Liam said feeling an immense weight lift off of his chest.

"What the hell!" Melissa demanded angrily causing them both to look up and see that she now held Lockheart's pistol. She pointed it at Katie with a furious look on her face. "What kind of messed up shit have you gotten him into! Tonight was supposed to be perfect! I was supposed to finally be the beauty queen, I was going to be pretty for once, I was going to dance with Liam, and we were going to start dating!" Katie quickly glanced at Liam whose face revealed he had no idea about Melissa's plans. "Then you, you freak had to come along and bring this psychopath into my house! Liam's sweet, he always has been, but you had to go and ruin him!"

"Listen beauty queen just quit waving that gun around; it might go off!" Katie said taking a step back to try and get out of range, but Melisa just swung the gun to where she moved to.

"And what if I want it to go off huh!" Melissa yelled pulling the hammer of the gun back. "What are you going to do about it?" Melissa let out a horrific gasping noise as something collided with the back of her own skull. She fell like a sack of potatoes to the floor the gun clattering across the room where Katie grabbed it.

"Has she always been this nuts?" Katie asked checking to see that the revolver was fully loaded.

"I don't know." Liam said sitting back in the deeply padded chair his fists curling around the armrests so tightly his knuckles went white. "I need, I need, I need my mentats!" he gasped.

"Where are they?" Katie asked feeling his pockets and coming up with nothing. "Oh no." Katie said remembering flashing back to when Liam had slipped his halo-disk out of his pocket. His mentats had clattered out without anyone's knowledge except her own. "Liam, please you need to hold on, you need to keep it together until we can get out of here."

"I can't!" Liam said his facial tics going out of control.

"Just, just focus on me, Liam. Focus on me, forget everything else." Katie held his head still and pressed their foreheads together. "Just forget everything else and focus on me, okay?"

Liam gulped her skin oddly cool against his own which felt so hot he wanted to rip it off. "Okay." he whispered managaing to nodd his head.

"Just look into my eyes and focus on your breathing. Deep breath in and out." Liam followed her instructions and on impulse he pressed him lips to hers.

Liam caught himself what felt like a moment too late and he pulled away. His ticks and twitches had ceased seemingly all at once; now the only thing going out of control was his heart pounding so hard he could hear his blood flowing in his ears. "Come on lover boy let's get out of here." Katie said pulling him to his feet.

Together hand in hand they ran outside into the driveway where they quickly found their car. "Hold on." Liam said looking under the car and easily finding the tracking device Lockheart must have been using. A quick scan revealed Lockheart's car a few yards away; Liam snapped the thing into place before returning to the car which Katie had already started.

"Good thinking." Katie said realizing what Liam had done. "Where to next?"

"We probably shouldn't go home yet incase Lockheart has another murderous rampage in him." Liam said looking at Katie. "Do you know somewhere we could go?"

"Yeah, I think I know just the place." Katie said pulling out of the driveway.

The place Katie had in mind was a cliff hidden by trees that overlooked the whole town. It was right above the fenced off vault area which was filled with troopers decked out in power armor. "It's beautiful." Liam commented.

"I used to come up here with my dad all the time." Katie said leaning against the car hood next to Liam. "Before they came and drained the lake we would fish there; it used to piss my mom off because we would both come back reeking of fish."

"Katie, about what happened back at the party." Liam said reaching out for her hand again.

"Don't worry about it Liam I know it was just nerves." Katie said giving him a half grin. Liam frowned at this; he had come to a realization at the party. It wasn't the mentats that he needed, it was Katie. "Oh by the way I got you an early birthday present." Katie reached into her hoodie and pulled out a pip boy.

"Where did you?" Liam asked, forgetting his disappointment for the temporary excitement, taking the device and snapping it into place around his wrist.

"It was in that whack job's house in a frame." Katie said glancing over his shoulder as it powered on and he flinched as it dug into his arm to do the DNA lock. "So Melissa huh?"

"I had no idea she was so ... ." Liam struggled to find a word other than crazy, but none came to mind. "I don't think that she's going to be telling anyone about what happened though. Otherwise she'll be explaining why she tried to shoot you."

"What about Lockheart? We didn't kill him and he knows where you live. Are you worried about him coming after your family?" Katie asked.

"No, we have the information he wants. I don't think he'd risk me deleting it by threatening my family." Liam said. "You got his wallet; what's his real name?"

"Desmond Lockheart." Katie said pulling out the ID and chucking the wallet into the forest. "Grade A psychopath."

"You said it." Liam said. They sat in complete silence staring at the town as the sun slowly rose behind it, allowing the high of the night's antics to dissipate.

Liam nervously shook his foot as he stared at his terminal screen. Three days since it started, three days since Desmond Lockheart had tried to kill them, and three days since he had cracked the encryption on the data locked away in the computer that was supposed to hold shipping manifests.

"Any luck?" Katie asked for the third time.

"It's a lot of really advanced tech," Liam said with a shake of his head. "It's not like anything I've seen before and I only understand every tenth word or so."

"Science stuff that even you don't understand; that is scary." Katie said.

"What's with all the commotion?" Liam asked seeing that the hallway was abuzz with activity. Normally this kind of activity risked setting him off, but with Katie so close he didn't have to worry about that.

"Some bigshot is coming to town to give some kid a scholarship." Katie said with a shrug.

"Which one?" Liam asked pulling several books out of his locker.

"His name was some kind of place you live in: apartment, mansion, bungalow, hotel." Katie snapped her fingers as Liam's eyes widened and his grip on the books turned his knuckles white.

"House." he whispered.

"Right, that's it." Katie said. "Liam, are you okay?"

"I need to go," Liam said slamming the locker closed. "I'll see you at the assembly okay?" Katie nodded and Liam took off to a janitor's closet that he had access to thanks to a broken lock.

He had hacked House's system mere weeks ago, but he had gone undetected or at least he thought. Then he had hacked the city plans and the criminally insane Desmond had shown up. Now here was one of the most powerful men in the world showing up only a day after he hacked the computer at the chem company. It had to be connected, but what did all these people want with information on a computer out in the middle of nowhere?

"Damn it this doesn't make any sense." Liam said holding his head in between his legs. Normally mentats would soothe this ache, but thanks to Katie he had been on plenty of fixer that kept away the shakes of withdrawal as long as he didn't use mentats. Still it was a challenge even with the fixer to not escape into the bliss of fizzy mentats. "He has to want the information just like Desmond, but why do they want it?"

Liam revealed his pip boy from underneath his hoodie and quickly gleamed through the information once again. It didn't make any more sense than it did before, but as he suspected the one recurring phrase was life preservation.

This certainly needed to be examined further, but for now he needed to go to the assembly and meet the man himself.

The auditorium was crowded and everyone was keeping their eyes peeled for the famous Mr. House. Although he was nowhere to be seen several of his famous securitrons were surrounding he stage keeping the crowd at bay.

Suddenly the crowd grew quiet and Liam turned to see Robert House walking onto the stage looking almost regal with his million dollar suit and half a million dollar haircut. He was by far the fanciest person to have ever entered the town.

"Hey Liam are you okay?" Katie asked her hand finding its way into his own.

"Yeah, just fine." Liam lied. "Just a little surprised that a guy like that would ever come here."

"Maybe he's got a spot in one of the vaults." Katie could see on Liam's eyes that he knew this not to be true. "You don't think that he's here for the same reason Desmond was do you?"

Liam breathed in sharply. He didn't like lying to Katie, but he couldn't tell her that the world was going to end and that he knew it. How could he explain that he had knowledge that people would kill for and that he had stolen it from the man below who was probably there to kill them both. "What are the odds?" Liam asked shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head. "Either he's here for a spot in the vault or he just happened to be monitoring the exact computer we hacked into at the exact time we were attacked by some crazy lunatic or he really is just here to scope out the vault he got into."

"You're right, what are the odds he might actually be here for the same reason?" Pretty darn good Katie thought, but she didn't want to worry Liam with that.

"Why hello River Crest students." Mr. House spoke with a low voice which was powerful, smooth, and screamed culture. "I must say I was incredibly surprised when I noticed a town in the middle of Kansas was the one that contained exactly what I was looking for."

He paused dramatically allowing the student body and those from the town in attendance to whisper about what such a powerful man could want in their little town. "Two of the brightest minds that our generation has to offer; two that I intend to snatch up before any of my competitors are able to, selfish as I am." This earned chuckle from the crowd; one neither Liam nor Katie shared in. "In exchange for a generous donation to the school in the form of securitrons and several other amenities not the least of which being hard earned dollars I was able to hold this rally in their honor."

"Maybe it really is a freaky deek coincidence it looks like Mr. House isn't actually here to raid that chem company he's just here to give away some scholarships. Rich people love doing this so they can brag to their rich friends about how active they are in the community." Katie whispered to Liam.

It was a perfectly rational explanation. Except for one thing; why would a man who knows the world is going to end care about giving anyone a scholarship? Liam mauled the possibilities over: Mr. House was either here for the plans, here for Desmond, or here for him and Katie. No matter what the reason it would be impossible for them to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

"As for who those two people are and how I became aware of them I can answer both those questions. Firstly through the manager of one of my many factories I became aware of our first rising star when his daughter began pointing out flaws and inefficiencies in the assembly lines. Small things? Maybe, but her small improvements have saved Rob. Co a whopping thirty six million in revenue and lost parts over the last year after having been implemented across all my companies nationwide. A portion of the proceeds of which go to buying army bonds and improving the already existing . robots being implemented in the war against the commies!"

Liam had seen Mr. House's financials and while that may be true Mr. House also happened to be selling to the Chinese under a different company name.

"This is young lady is Ms. Melissa Evans right here in the front row. Come on up sweetie." Melissa stood up to a chorus of applause and cheers. She had visible stitches along the right side of her head where Liam had craned her. "Yes well the second student that I will be awarding my money to is the only one who has matched young Melissa here in grades and overall academic performance as evaluated by his teachers."

Liam watched as one of the smarter boys in the class stood up and both he and Melissa received a large check and a contract from Rob. Co that seconded as a letter of acceptance to just about any university in the states.

This didn't make much sense, if Mr. House had come here to find the information they had stolen then why not award him and Katie the scholarship as an excuse to get them alone. He suddenly became conscious of Katie gripping his hand in an effort to gain his attention. "What is it?" he asked.

"Isn't that your mom down there swooning?" Katie asked pointing to Mrs. Williams down below looking positively star struck by Mr. House's impressively white teeth, handsome features, and neat grooming.

"Yeah it is." Liam sighed.

"Is just me or does the guy in the suit keep looking at her out of the corner of his eye? You think your dad needs to be worried?" Katie asked nudging his side with her elbow.

"I think every dad has to be worried with that much money involved." Liam said with a shrug. "You're right though."

"Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter looks like this depression rally's wrapping up." Katie stood and patted her skirt free of whatever grime it had picked up from the bleacher seat before turning to Liam. "You heading to class?"

"Yeah, you?" he asked glancing up at her and taking in her appearance: a pink floral skirt, high-top sneakers, a white blouse hidden by a leather vest, and white striped pink scarf.

"Oh Liam still so naive to ask; business to attend to people to see." Katie said in response and Liam shrugged his shoulders. "You have been changing my attendance record haven't you?"

"Of course." he said. "Why are you still dressed like that by the way?"

"Just the thing every girl needs to start her day: have her appearance questioned by her boyfriend." she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before leaving to attend to the business she had planned. First stop: her locker.

When she reached the locker door she opened it up and glanced inside. The sharp noise of flipping metal revealed her rolls of emergency cash stashed inside a vault tech lunch box. She pounded her fist against the back of her locker and a secret hatch fell open; a gift from the mysterious previous tenant.

Inside were shelves that contained her chem supply. Some might say it was idiotic to store them in school, but in her opinion the best place to hide something was where everyone thought you were too smart to hide it, typically no one ever bothered to actually check.

She snatched a few and put them into her purse before replacing the paneling. Just as she was about to close the locker she glanced at the mirror stuck on the door.

The previous night's antics had gone on later than she had originally anticipated and cut into her beauty sleep leaving her with dark circles under her eyes. No more than your average teen she supposed, but her creamy skin was a point of vanity on her part. She ran a few fingers through here her curls and tried to give them some more bounce.

For just a moment she allowed her thoughts to drift to last night, Liam had kissed her, really kissed her. She didn't know who was more nervous, and they were in such a hurry to get out of there they didn't even have an opportunity to talk about it. It had to be nerves, it had to be, just because she liked Liam didn't mean that he liked her. She was his drug dealer, what kind of relationship had ever started that way?

'Cool hair, pretty eyes, high cheek bones, pink lips, I could be someone's girlfriend.' Katie thought lifting her eyebrows at herself in the mirror. 'I could be Liam's girlfriend. We could be a nice couple, perfectly normal teenage sweethearts. We could get married when we graduate, a house in some place like that Sanctuary Hills I read about somewhere up in Boston, have a couple kids, drop them off at his parents, then go vacation up in the city for a week. Why couldn't we be that couple?" Katie asked herself. 'I'd be a great mom: bake cookies, carpool, PTA, get them a dog we'd take care of together. And Liam just seems like the type of guy who'd do anything for his family.'

It was a nice fantasy: the perfect family in the suburbs. Something that she dreamed of, and what her father had always wanted for her, even as he was teaching her the business. Maybe that was the reason she was attracted to Liam she couldn't hope to live that peaceful life alone: too weird, too angry, too in love with the dangerous life she led. He was the smartest person she had ever met, and the only one as out of place in this town as she was, with both of them working at it maybe they could solve this normal problem.

"Yeah, we could do it. Why wouldn't we be able to?" Katie muttered to herself. "He could stay at home with the kids while I go out and bring home the bacon." She grinned to herself, a woman being the earner of the home; who had ever heard of something so crazy?

Of course she didn't deal with the actual clients just dished out resupplies to her soldiers who reported to her a new client willing to dish out serious cash. This was the kind of situation that Katie liked to deal with personally because it meant one of three things: a cop trying to attack her gang, they had a new gang trying to get a feel for their turf, or she had a new second favorite client. 'Or the report is false and the guy who reported is trying to get me alone in some place so they can take me out and control the only chem supply business in a hundred miles." The thought briefly flitted across her mind and while it happened less and less as she became better known, there was no sense in not preparing for it.

The address was a luxurious home that had been for sale for quite a while as no one in their small town could afford it. Now however it seemed as though someone had slapped a fresh coat of gleaming white paint on it and moved in. The person to answer wasn't a person at all, but a Mr. Handy robot, quite the amenity.

"Ah welcome, young ma'am I was told to expect a young girl named Katie, might you be her?" he asked through a chipper British accent.

"Indeed I might." Katie said with a smile at the somewhat creepy robot.

"Wonderful, my name is Marco, please follow me to the master's study so that you may conduct your business." He hovered up the stairs leaving Katie sweltering beneath the heat given off by his propulsion jet.

"You're not colored like any Mr. Handy I ever saw." Katie commented.

"That's because I was built as a Mr. Gutsy ma'am originally built to aide in the war effort against those filthy communists. My programming was stripped replaced with that of a Mr. Handy. If you ask me it makes me the best of two worlds, the ability to incinerate your enemies through the use of fire or laser and still able to brew the perfect cup of coffee." That didn't make Katie feel anymore comfortable around the hovering bot.

"They didn't quite get all the Mr. Gutsy out did they?"

"No they did not." Marco confirmed gently pushing open the door to what she could only assume was the study. "Sir your three o'clock is here."

"Wonderful." the voice grumbled.

On an unspoken order Marco exited the room closing the door behind him, and Katie wondered if she heard a click. Either way she reached into her pocket and gripped the switchblade inside.

The man in the chair slowly turned and Katie's eyes widened; it was Desmond. With his arm in a sling, and stiches interrupting his perfect head of hair he didn't look quite so handsome or threatening. Still she pulled out her knife and brandished it as threateningly as she could.

"Oh don't be so rude ducky you are in my 'ome after all."

"You also tried to kill me twice."

"You're countin' the time at that Melissa girl's mansion? I didn't even know you were there until you went and gave me this baby." He pointed his head, but Katie didn't lower the blade. "Alright fair is fair I suppose, but that's not why I called you here for?"

"And why is that by the way?" Katie asked. "Come to think about it why did you even show up at the chem company that night, why are you here?

He smiled as if somehow his genuine threat of her and Liam's lives was funny. "Tell me ducky, what do you know about the end of the world?"

"It's a really popular movie idea?" Katie said cautiously.

"Oh no Ducky: not the brain eating zombie, world flooding, meteor crashing end of the world, the real one. The one that the government is keeping from you; the one that looms over us all, the one that powers our cars, light our homes, and fire our weapons."

"What are you talking about?" Katie asked.

"Nuclear power ducky."

"It's the way of the future, everyone knows that."

"It's the future's end you dumb bird. Ever since the first nuclear bomb was dropped in Japan the top one percent of the top one percent have been making contingency plans for them to drop en masse."

"The government wouldn't let that happen."

"Oh not only are they letting it happen they're putting us on a fast track down that path. Those top percenters have seen this coming for a while, and they've tried their very hardest to find a way to live through it. I included." Desmond looked at her through narrowed eyes and Katie suddenly felt vulnerable even with the knife between the two. "The end's coming, sooner than you'd think. Right now both sides are building as many nuclear weapons as possible, and the generals are trying to convince the senators to launch before the other side has a chance to. Won't matter in the end though, as soon as one government launches any kind of weapon the other would notice almost immediately and launch their own. And since both sides know that they'll keep fighting these pointless wars until someone either fires a missile or the resources run out at which point it won't matter because they'll both blame each other than fire anyway."

"If you know so much about how the world's going to end why aren't you doing anything to stop it?" Katie asked chilled by the topic.

"Because ducky who do you think is left when the bombs drop? Not those poor bastards trying to hide in bunkers beneath their homes. People like me who have all the money in the world to spend building nuclear shelters, developing new medical technologies on the fly, and special ways to avoid the damaging effects of the bomb. Then once the bomb drop provided we find some way to live long enough for humanity to reemerge we rule the ashes." Desmond was wearing that sickening smile once again, the one that twisted his handsome features in an almost painfully ugly grin.

"I don't believe you, you're crazy."

"I'm sure I might seem that way ducky, but if you need some confirmation you need only look at that boy you were with the other night." Katie furrowed her brow at this, confused by why he was mentioning Liam. "I did some asking around and while your boyfriend may not be one of us top percenters he certainly does know about the end. Not sure exactly how, but what can you do?"

"You're lying!" Katie yelled furiously.

"No I'm not." He looked at her with steely gaze and Katie felt her arm start to tremble, whether it was because of fatigue or fear she didn't know. "Now you asked a question before, why am I here. A group of us top percenters came together and conducted quite a few miraculous experiments, but one of us ran off with all the data hoping to rule the ashes all on his lonesome. Needless to say he didn't get very far, but he managed to hide the plans to save himself in a chain in one of those factories that he owns. They're all across the globe and the only clue we had to finding them was a floor plan. I've searched hundreds of cities and thousands more records for those specific floor plans, but never did they match any buildings I found."

"So how did you know to come for us?" Katie asked.

"Because you accessed those very floor plans darling. That boy Liam hacked into the city plans and sent out a ping heard all across the world. Oh I remember the day I heard that beautiful ping, how stupid I felt to find out that the very plans I was looking for had been pulled from the city records of some middle of nowhere town in Kansas. It's brilliant, hide the factory somewhere it has no place being and no one will ever notice it."

"You're lying!" Katie screamed.

"All the proof you need is in a safe your dream boat has hidden behind a poster in his room."

"Why are you telling me this?" Katie asked trying her best to hide the tremble in her voice.

"Because if you get your boyfriend to give me the plans then maybe I share one of them and expand your pitiful life for a few more decades." Katie kept glancing at the door behind her and Desmond must have noticed. "Go ahead and go, but remember the safe."

Katie took the opportunity and yanked the door open charging down the stairs like a pack of wild dogs were nipping on her heels. She stopped when she was well over ten blocks away panting with one thought on her mind, 'Is it true?' There was only one way to find out.


	4. Chapter 4

Another luxurious car was in Liam's driveway when he got home from school that day. It was a different one than the one Desmond had originally brought, but a thousand images of how the man might be holding his family hostage inside flashed through his thoughts.

Not surprisingly he wished that Katie was there; she was the tough one after all. Steeling his resolve he ducked under the porch window, hopped the fence, and peeked through the back door into the living room.

It wasn't Desmond like he had expected it was someone just as worrisome if not more so: Mr. House. The only other person who knew down to the day when the world was going to end to the date. He was sitting on their couch smiling his thousand watt smile, twisting his mustache as he laughed at whatever story his mother was telling. Meanwhile his father was making futile attempts to try and show Mr. House the business plan he had been taking to every bank that would let him in the door.

His mother turned her head in his direction; Liam tried ducking behind the door, but it was a vein attempt. "Liam!" she called and he sighed.

Whatever the conversation might be he knew it would take at least three mentats to get through. Luckily Katie had restocked him that morning and while he still felt a bit twitchy after the first two the third put an end to that.

"So as you can see Mr. House we would be making a profit within three years and after installing the new frames you would see a return on your investments within three months of that." Mr. Wells said pointing to a chart in the folder which Mr. House wasn't paying attention to at all. As soon as Liam had walked in the door his gaze was locked on the younger boy.

Liam gulped, he felt intimidated. He may be good with computers and science, but Mr. House was a certified genius in all aspects. A king of industry, and one of the robot giants who made incredible profits off of the war. "Yes, yes very interesting." he said grabbing the folder without glancing at it. "Well it looks like your son has arrived."

"Oh yeah of course." Mr. Wells said seemingly barely realizing himself that Liam was here. "Liam Mr. House had some time between his meetings and came here to uh talk turkey." His tone was nice enough, but Liam knew his dad well enough to know this was his "don't screw this up for us face". "To talk about you specifically." Liam felt his heart start to beat harder and he found himself wishing he had taken more than three mentats.

"Yes well I'm still a bit confused about that, you see I was at the meeting at the high school, and as I recall you were only giving away two scholarships for you company." Mrs. Wells glanced at Mr. House who seemed surprised that she had remembered that and pieced that together so quickly. Liam was not, he didn't get his intelligence from dad after all.

"There may have only been two scholarships available Mrs. Wells but I'm not here to talk to your son about a scholarship. I'm here to offer him a job."

"A job?" Mr. Wells spluttered. "Mr. House as smart as my son may be he's not cut out for the back breaking work of robot building. That's hard, man's work not for someone as delicate as Liam here, besides he's already got a job helping me in the shop when he gets older."

"Well as honest and hard as the work may be Mr. Wells no human being has built a robot since the fifties." Mr. House ran a hand through his hair still focused on Liam. "I want Liam here to work alongside me on a new project."

"Alongside you?" Mrs. Wells asked for her husband was too stunned to respond.

"Yes, you see Liam has a gift with computers. One that I must say rivals my own, and I believe that I can put his talents to good use at my company. The bulky hard drives and monitors that you see across the world today are inadequate for future projects that I will be working on, and I believe that with Liam's help I can solve quite a few problems that have been plaguing me in the design. As for salary I can bring Liam on at a few million dollars a year to begin with then once we have designed and patented a few projects together we can talk about giving him a stake in Rob. Co and in a few years when he graduates college he may be able to sit on the board someday." Mrs. Wells' eyes were as large as a deer caught in the headlights and she was squeezing Mr. Well's arm in a vice grip. "Of course depending on how your son preforms there's no reason he wouldn't be able to take over the business when I am no longer capable."

"A-and you say all this is because Liam is good with computers?" Mr. Wells asked receiving a nod of recognition from the richer man. "How did you find out about his talent? If you don't mind me asking of course."

"Well that is actually confidential. You know lawyers always want to make sure no one knows anything just so they can make themselves look smart." This earned a nervous chuckle from Liam's parents who looked as if someone had struck them over the head with a solid gold brick and then told them to keep it in exchange. "Before any of this can happen though I'd like to speak to Liam alone for a few hours, just to get a sense of who he is and see if he's Robco material." They nodded and Liam wished for the first time that his parents weren't so naïve. "I had some reservations made at that steak house in the next town over, supposed to be the best in the state, but why don't you two go and enjoy it for me while I speak to your son?"

"That sounds just wonderful." Mrs. Wells said finally regaining her composure. "Darla our daughter is over at her grandmother's for the day; Liam you're okay talking to Mr. House aren't you?" Liam didn't think he could be less okay with anything in the world, and he tried to convey this message through his eyes, but both his parents remained oblivious to his fear. "Fantastic, we'll get our coats."

Mr. House waited until both of Liam's parents were out the door and down the street in their car before he finally turned and spoke to Liam. "Well then Liam, you're a smart boy so there's no need to beat around the bush here. You hacked into my computers in an effort to find material suitable blackmail material, but instead you found my algorithm. The algorithm that predicts the apocalypse. I call it PAM."

"I read the file." Liam agreed.

"Then you know that we're doomed and even if by some miracle no one flings a bomb then the next apocalypse is only a few short years away. Now I knew someone hacked my computers, as for how you did it I have no idea, I programmed them myself after all. I traced it back to this town then your little terminal back there, but I saw no point in making a fuss over it. A teenager now knows that the world's going to end, what does that matter? Then just a few short weeks later an alert goes off on my computer. Your terminal accessed the blueprints of a building that I and some other very important people have been looking for, for quite some time."

"The chem company." Liam whispered.

"Exactly. I was shocked, for a second there I considered the possibility that you were one of my competitors hiding out in a small town in an effort to throw me off, but after confirming that you exist and that neither of your parents are secret geniuses I concluded that you came to arrive at the information you found completely by accident." Mr. House squinted at him and Liam held his breath worried that he had somehow angered the man. "Do you know what it is you have found?"

"A bunch of complex medical, technology, and biology files." Liam said.

"If that was all you found do you really think that I and a very dangerous individual named Desmond Lockheart would both be in this mound of dirt you call a town?"

"I suppose not."

"No, we would not. What you found Liam is the personal sized solution to the apocalypse, a get out of jail free card for whoever possesses it. Within the data you found there were the half completed projects of a very special think tank of billionaires and geniuses. Some speculation for immortality through the use of cryogenic-stasis, experimental radiation treatments, the complete elimination of the need for a human body, and incredible life support systems capable of extending the average of life for hundreds possibly thousands of years. But as I said most are only half finished and the science behind them is so complex that any normal person like your parents would think themselves to death trying to read a step by step instruction manual on how to complete them."

"Then what do you want from me?" Liam asked forcing his hand to stop trembling.

"It's not about what I want Liam, it's about what you want Liam. You want to live through the apocalypse; trying to hack Vault-tec is a bold move even by my standards. I can provide you with all the money in the world to finish these experiments as well as an extra pair of hands to assist in making these pieces of science fiction reality."

"So you really do want a partner?"

"Exactly, and having one as gifted as you are will make things much easier for me in the long run. Not even I could hack the computer at that chem company, but you did it with a pre written program in mere minutes under the stress of a gun at your temple. Given enough time I may be able to do the same, but as you know time is one of the things we don't have." Mr. House's gaze fell on Liam's are where the pip-boy was attached. "I suppose that is connected to the super computer through some kind of remote interface, so you can access the plans whenever you please. We could begin work right now." Mr. House looked back up at Liam and saw the fear on his face. "While I understand that even for the most brilliant minds this might be quite a lot to process, but you need to make a decision and I expect one by this time next week. According to my projections that's the latest we can begin and still finish in time for the big show." Mr. House stood up, pulled on his coat, and reached for the door, but before he could step through the doorway Liam called out.

"If I'm going to do this my family has to get a get out of jail free card too." Liam said.

"Why of course." Mr. House nodded.

"And my girlfriend." Liam felt idiotic just saying such an adolescent thing in front of such a powerful man over such an important topic of discussion, but it seemed to only amuse the older man who smiled in the doorway.

"I wouldn't expect anything less, but a bit of friendly advice from one friend to another: family always screws you in the end. No exceptions." With that he left leaving Liam to try several pointless breathing exercises to try and calm down; he felt like he had just made a deal with the devil for his soul.

Speaking of devils, there was his favorite red head walking down the street. He knew that he could never tell her what had just transpired or that Mr. House had been here at all, or else risk his nonexistent relationship with her. He only hoped that saving her from the nuclear fire would somehow make up for the fact that he didn't warn her about it in the first place.

Katie's heart was in her throat and she could hear it beating in her ears. She was nervous for the first time in how long, she had known that Liam was hiding something, but how could he hide something like this from her. Why would he keep the biggest secret in the world hidden from her and still willingly enter in a relationship with her.

She hoped, she prayed that Desmond was a senile man with a lot of money to blow, and maybe it had just been him that arrived in town then she would believe it, but within weeks of his arrival a second highly influential and rich individual arrived and presented himself right at their school. What were the odds of that?

It certainly explained some things: the random mutterings that Liam spoke when he thought no one was listening, his sudden demand for things like stimpacks and med-x his unusual paranoia, angst, the panic attacks that gripped him. All things that one would expect from someone who was constantly waiting for the world to end; just the thought that any of what Desmond said sent chills down her spine. She couldn't imagine living with that information all on your own.

She also couldn't imagine the fact that Liam of all people would even be capable of keeping such a secret. Speaking of Liam she glanced at him standing in his doorway seemingly waiting for her. "I thought your parents and us had dinner plans." she said noticing s stark absence of any kind of adult in Liam's home which would make what she was about to do a lot easier.

"They got a free steak dinner at some restaurant over in the next town; I guess it slipped their minds." Liam said giving an awkward smile telling Katie that he was hiding something from her already. "I'm sure they'll regret not getting the chance to sit you down and talk."

"Oh Liam you flirt." Katie walked past him into the living room leaving him with a blush over his pale features. "I've got to say Liam getting your parents out of the house just in time for you to be in your house alone with a girl, how very scandalous." Liam visibly gulped as he turned redder than a tomato and Katie laughed again. "Oh relax Liam I'm just teasing." She glanced around for a few brief moments and spotted a few frozen dinners on the counter. "Still I am pretty hungry."

"I can heat up what my mom was planning on making." Liam said shaking his head as if to dislodge some naughty thought. "Just give me a few minutes."

"Sounds terrific." Katie said glancing at the hallway where Liam's room and the restroom both lay. "Your bathroom's down there right?"

"Y-yeah." Liam said pushing his glasses up his nose. "It's the last door."

"Thank you." Katie walked down as casually as she could manage, and even opened the door the door at the end of the hall to make it sound realistic, but she quietly entered Liam's room instead.

The only poster it could be was the Rob-Co Pip-boy poster that hung right above the terminal Liam had in his room. She peeled away the tape that held the thing in place; sure enough there was a safe there undetectable unless you were looking for it or knew where to find it like she did. She reached toward her hair and pulled out one of the bobby pins that held it in place. She pulled out the switchblade she had in her skirt pocket and used it as a torque wrench.

She hesitated, if she unlocked this safe whether or not there was anything inside it would mean that she trusted the world of the psychotic lunatic who tried to kill them twice over that of Liam, who she had known for years and who she cared about deeply. Whatever was in this safe, whether it was the truth about the apocalypse or not he had put in here because he wanted to keep it private. How could she ever hope to have a relationship if she was so willing to put it all at risk over someone else's word?

'Why does this have to be so hard?' Katie asked herself still hesitating on the lock. 'Just see what's inside and if it's not those halo-tapes that Desmond said were here just forgive him for whatever is in here.' Katie tried to convince herself that it shouldn't matter because Desmond wasn't telling the truth and whatever was inside would only prove that, but she wanted to have a normal relationship, to be a normal person in a normal relationship.


End file.
